Things About Pirates You Never Knew

Pirate flags weren’t always just white skull and crossbones on a field of black.

We might think of pirates as grizzled old men, but in reality, most of them were probably in their ’20s

Pirate treasure is one of the most enduring myths and intriguing legends in history. But in reality, only one treasure trove has ever been found: The Whydah‘s.

Pirates typically did not make members of the crew walk the plank after a disagreement, or leave them abandoned on a desert island like what happened to Captain Jack and Elizabeth Swann.

Pirates received workman’s comp!

In a time when people still owned slaves and treated them like livestock (or worse), pirates were surprisingly unprejudiced.

Remember how I said there were exceptions to the “Pirates were probably in their ’20s” rule? There’s one very notable exception – John King, who was about nine years old when he joined the crew of the Whydah

Pirates didn’t often attack other ships by sinking them and slaughtering the crew.

Despite their general fairness and surprising democratic ways, sometimes pirates did force men to join their crew against their will.

It wasn’t all pillaging and plundering. Sometimes being a pirate was really boring.